Ultimate PSU in Computers 2021- PSU Brand Guides Features Cable

If you're building a completely new system for yourself or you just want to upgrade a gaming PC with a new power-hungry graphics card, you're going to need a power supply or PSU in computers. 

And even though I would say it's not the most exciting part of your system.

It is one of the most important ones because a good reliable power supply will keep your system running stable. 

It will protect your other components daily and therefore, keep them running longer, while a bad quality power supply is nothing but a struggle. 

In the best-case scenario is getting just fry or other components and in the worst-case scenario, it is a straight-up, fire hazard. 

So you should take this step seriously and never cheap out on a power supply, it will be worth it in the long run. 

Now, even though it sounds a bit overwhelming at the start to begin, your next power supply in computers is pretty straight forward and very easy to do. 

So that's what I'll be talking about today, and I'll be doing that with the help of seasoning because they thought that this was a very interesting topic. 

And hopefully, help you pick a proper power supply that fits your best PSU in Computers. Let's begin.

PSU Buy from a Reliable Brand

The first thing you need to do when picking a power supply is to filter out unknown brands or manufacturers with a bad or unproven reputation.

Now pretty much any company can just go to a power supply factory, they can buy a cheap design, slap a nice sticker on it and make it look good to make some quick cash, but they're usually quite cheap and you know that's why they might seem tempting. 

But they pretty much skimp on quality to make them as cheap as possible. And with that, a lot of safety measures as well.

So you should always stick to well-known brands that have been making power supplies for a long time now and have built a very good reputation. Over the years.

So Next us Seasonic brands like Cooler-Master like coarser or be quiet are also worth checking out. I use them as well and know them to be reliable.

And if there are any brands, and she usually goes for please mention them in the comments down below and I will check them out. 

You will also quite often see some other big brands coming out with their power supplies to manage their other products.

For example, Asus and Phanteks have their power supplies, but they're made by Seasonic. So if you want your power supply in your next build to match your other hardware.

Try to first find out which manufacturer is behind it. And if you cannot find that out, you know just stick to the well-known brands that I mentioned earlier, and you'll find PSU in computers. 

It's not like he will see your power supply in most cases anyway, so it doesn't matter as much. 

PSU Size: ATX vs SFX(-L)

Now the next step would be the size of your power supply which will completely depend on the size of your case. 

Now when you look at the specifications of your case, it will say, which power supply, it will fit, and you will usually have to choose between an ATX, the big one, or S effects, the small one right here. 

And there are some other sizes as well, but they're nice and are worth talking about today. 

And if you need those, they will either come with your case or, there won't be many models to choose from. Anyway, but the ATX would be the big ones right here. 

And they fit the vast majority of PC cases, so if you have a mid size or a larger tower case you can pick any ATX power supply, and it will fit just fine. I think, 95% of the builders out there are rocking in ATX power supply.

Also, if you're going for a smaller PC that still says it fits in the ATX power supply, you do want to check what length of a power supply will fit because some are a bit longer than others. 

So a typical power supply would be around 14 centimeters long, the higher end ones would be 16 cm to 17 cm. And on top of that, you also need to make sure that there is a couple of centimeters frees from cables, as well.

If you're going for a tiny compact build and you want that small form factor it acts the case, you will most likely need this small as a fixed power supply as well. 

Now you need to see if it only fits in, so facts are also the slightly larger SFX-L model. So the upside of the L models is that they fit a larger fan, which is always a good thing, especially in these smaller cases. 

So for example, this focus as GX power supply is a slightly larger SFX-L model, and this is the standard as affects one so you can see the difference between them. 

Capacity, How many Watts do you need?

The next step would be to find out what capacity you need for your system, aka how many watts. And this will completely depend on the specs of your PSU in computers. So let's break it down a bit. 

The biggest factor is your graphics card, and two-level cards like the GTX 1650 Super typically use less than 100 watts, mid-range cards usually sit around the 200-watt mark and high-end cards like the new RT x 3080, or RX 6900 XT will run closer to 300 watts or more so that affects the overall power drum.

Now your CPU is the second biggest factor and typically you need around 60 watts to 70 watts for a mid-range CPU, like ryzen 5, 3600, or 5600 X processor, but a high-end CPU is like an Intel Core I 9 processors or an AMD ryzen 9 processors. The big cooler can sometimes pull up 250 watts, or even more. 

Now, most of your other hardware like cooling memory, SSDs hard drives, peripherals, and RGV doesn't affect your power supply choices much.

Assuming you don't plan on making a server that uses you know 15 mechanical hard drives, but generally speaking, I usually count roughly 100 watts for everything else which gives you plenty of headroom for any extras. 

So, if we add all that up, a system with a low end to mid-range CPU and GPU will typically use up to 250 to 300 watts of power in total. 

And it says the best power supplies start at around 400 to 500 watts. Anyway, you know, just get one of those, and you will be just fine. 

But let's look into the high-end system. If you have an Intel i 9 or a ryzen 9 with a top of the line RTX or Radeon RX card. You get about 500 to 550 watts, all together.

But you also notice that everyone recommends an 850-watt power supply which you know doesn't add up does it, but they're two very good reasons for that.

The first one is to deal with higher powers fines that can occur in a high power system like this one, so a 550 watts rig can easily spike up to 650 watts and sometimes even more, which doesn't happen all the time, but it definitely does happen.

The second reason is that every power supply is most efficient when it's not running full load, so closer to 50% is ideal, 60 to 75% load is just fine. 

But what you don't want to do is for 550 watts, out of a 550-watt power supply all the time. 

It will create a lot of heat, it will be really loud trying to get rid of that heat to be able to push more, and remember those spikes. 

I mentioned earlier, so you have for a really high-end rig, with the latest CPU and the GPU 850 watts is a very good recommendation. 

However, if you already have a good quality 750 watts model, it will usually be able to handle your new rig just fine. It might be a tiny bit noisier, but that's pretty much it. 

But if you want to overclock your CPU and your GPU, the overall power consumption can go up by a lot. 

A 100-watt processor can easily be pushed up to 250 to 300 watts with a very good overclock. 

And the same goes for a GPU, a 300 watts GPU can be pushed to 450 watts, easily so that explains why we have those crazy 1000 watts or 1300 watt power supplies on the market. 

So, if you plan on doing some serious overclocking in the future. Give yourself a good amount of headroom. 

PSU Features - Black Cables!

PSU in computers ⇨ Now that we've chosen a reputable brand, the size and the capacity of your power supply, it all comes down to, which features you want and how much you want to spend on your power supply. 

The first thing I usually look for is that all cables are black, I mean it's 2021 and there's just no excuse for ketchup and mustard cables anymore. 

And even if you want to save up a bit and go for an affordable model like asphalt three that I have a right here that will cost you under 50 euros. I mean you won't get any extras with it, but your system will still look good if the cables are all black.

Features - Modular PSUs 4tw!

If you have a bit more room in your budget, I would strongly recommend getting a modular power supply.

Now standard power supplies have all the cables connected to them. While modular power supplies come with all the cables on the side, and they allow you to only use the ones you need, so you end up with fewer cables to deal with, which makes that wretched cable management, a bit less annoying at the end.

Now, a fully modular power supply is the nicest and if you can, you should always go for that one. But even a semi-modular one would be a big upgrade in my opinion. 

Now a semi-modular one has all the core cables fixed to it, so for the motherboard for the CPU and some of your GPU cables and the rest you can add, depending on your needs. 

Now, those will usually only cost you about $10 extra, so I would say there is no reason not to go for it. But the prices may differ in your region. 

PSU Features - Check number of connectors

Now keep in mind you need to make sure that your power supply has all the connections you need. 

So for example, if your graphics card a nice three 8 pin connectors, you need to make sure that your power supply will have it. 

And if you plan on overclocking and you know you want that extra CPU power you need to make sure that your power supply comes with an extra CPU cable for your motherboard. Makes sense, right.

PSU Features - Fan Stop, Hybrid Fan Mode

The next feature is very subjective but I find it important as I love a super quiet system, especially when idle, or when you're just browsing the internet or typing something for work.

Now higher power supplies often come with a fan stop mode which means that the fans will stop when you're not stressing your system. 

Now some power supplies like Seasonic higher and focus models, PSU, and prime units come also with a little button on the back of the power supply to turn that feature on or off depending on your preference. 

It's a great alternative to fully passive power supplies which can get expensive, and be honest, I find them kinda useless because in higher low situations like gaming, for example, when your power supplies fans will spin up a bit, your GPU and CPU will almost always make more noise than your power supply.

Should you go Super Premium PSU? Weighing Warranty & Price

Now your next consideration will the price and warranty. When looking at a good brand, they'll often have an even higher quality model for an even higher price for those that are looking for it.

But technically, I will say you don't really need to get a higher-end prime, or a focus model, for example, I guess it will largely depend on the total cost sewer system. 

So you probably won't care about spending 20 or $30 more on a high-end rig that costs $3,000 already than you will on a budget gaming rig, but that little bit of money can get you, you know, a better CPU for maybe a storage upgrade. 

Now, you do usually get a longer warranty with more expensive models like you would get 12 years on a prime model versus 10 years on a focus GX. 

Efficiency

And I would say the very last thing which I also find the least interesting would be the efficiency rating. 

Now, most brands use 80 plus labels as some indication of quality. 

So you have 80 plus bronze, gold, titanium, and so on, and higher ratings are better, but also cost much more. 

In practice, I don't think you should worry about it too much, I mean it's nice to see an 80 plus bronze budget power supply, and it's good to see 80 plus gold or better on a higher-end one. 

So there's a lot more for Platinum or titanium that is usually not going to pay itself back over time, but personally, I don't really see or hear a difference between them. 

But I would say, just keep an eye on the price really if the difference between the two is very small, you just might as well go for it.

PSU Final Thoughts

I think that's pretty much it for today. Now, of course, some things about a power supply in computers will completely depend on your specific case and your setup so it is still important to pay attention to details. 

If you're running some exotic hardware. For example, in some extremely large cases, you do need to consider the length of the power supply cables.

And you know with some extreme graphics cards that have a lot of connections, or if for some strange reason you want a multiple graphics card setup. 

You want to make sure that your power supply offers enough cables. 

So do make sure you do check your power supply product page, if you're going for something that's, you know, out of the ordinary. 

And if you want your system to look even better and you kind of want to order some nice custom cable extensions, at the end of your build. 

Make sure you get high-quality ones from well-known shops like cable mod, for example, and please don't order cheap ones from AliExpress as you know bad cables can really affect your system stability. And again, risk your components. 

I hope this PSU in computers whole post was clear enough and I really hope it did answer some of the questions or doubts you had about a power supply. 

And if there's absolutely anything else that you still want to know, please leave a comment down below, or ask something on our discord and I'll do my best to help you out. 

If you want to support this website, even more, so we can make more content like this one and add some more quality to it. 

Bye-bye guys and see you in the next book.